Professor sues New Matilda over leaking of racist emails

THE Sydney University professor suspended over racist emails has taken legal action against the website that published them.

The Federal Court has ordered online news site New Matilda not to publish further details about Barry Spurr's leaked emails, which referred to Prime Minister Tony Abbott as an "Abo-lover" and made references to "Mussies" and "Chinky-poos".

Professor Spurr, who was also a consultant to the Federal Government's national English curriculum review, was widely criticised over the emails after New Matilda published extracts last week.

Lawyers for Professor Spurr argued the publication of the emails breached the Privacy Act, and the court granted an injunction preventing publication of any more details before another court hearing on Thursday.

New Matilda editor Chris Graham said Professor Spurr's legal team was also fighting demands to have the emails returned, the articles deleted and the source of the leak revealed.